


dressed in black from head to toe

by caimani



Category: Hot Milk (Band), Stand Atlantic (Band), Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Detective Noir, Gen, Murder Mystery, background hannabon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-04 23:04:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18822577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: Awsten's a private eye at a small detective agency with his friends Miki and Bonnie. One rainy night, the three receive a call from the lady of Blackthorn Manor: her husband's been killed.





	dressed in black from head to toe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own/gifts).



> james shaw's cover of chocolate by the 1975 is the most beautiful cover ever

The gardens surrounding Blackthorn Manor are muddy from the rain. It’s proving difficult to find any traces of footprints from whoever killed Miss Hannah’s husband and fled. Awsten walks around anyway, squinting at the rain-soaked grass with a flashlight in hand. Miki is a few paces away from him with his own flashlight.

“Any clues are probably all washed away now,” Miki says. “It’s been a couple hours.”

Awsten shivers, freezing from a sudden gust of wind. Miki’s right. There’s not going to be any evidence out here. He’d much rather be inside.

Turning back towards the manor house, Awsten stubs his toe on something hard. He swears. “The hell was that?” He points his flashlight down into the grass and the light catches on something small and shiny. 

He reaches down to pick it up and squints at it.

Oh fuck, it’s a gun. Awsten jumps instinctively and the gun accidentally goes sailing out of his hands, flying upwards in an arc. A moment later, there’s a splash from the large fish pond to Awsten’s left. 

Whoops.

Awsten looks over at Miki, who definitely saw all of that. “We… um. We didn’t need that, right?”

Miki points his flashlight at the surface of the pond. He sighs. “Well, you grabbed it without gloves, so it’s not like we could have gotten fingerprints off it.”

Awsten shoves his free hand into his trench coat pocket. It’s way too cold out here. “I’m going back inside.”

Miki shrugs. “Yeah, might as well. Whoever killed Miss Hannah’s husband is long gone by now. Wonder if Bonnie’s found out anything, talking with her.”

Awsten doubts it. He wasn’t blind; he noticed how Bonnie and Miss Hannah were looking at each other when he and Miki left to search the grounds. 

The two private detectives head back to the side entrance of Blackthorn Manor. James, the butler, is waiting just inside with towels and bathrobes. Awsten thanks him for the dry garment, not wanting to track water through the nice house. 

“How’s Miss Hannah doing?” Miki says, handing his soaked coat over to James. 

James makes a face that feels like he’d be rolling his eyes if he wasn’t so proper. “Detective Fraser is keeping her company,” he says as he starts walking them through the house. “Miss Hannah has calmed down significantly since the incident occurred. I should thank you for your prompt response to her call. She was very… distressed after the incident occurred. She trusts the three of you.”

Awsten meets Miki’s gaze. The three of them had been investigating Miss Hannah’s husband for the past two weeks, on suspicion of infidelity. It had been hard breaking it to the woman the previous day. She must have already been in such a state of anguish, and to be dealing with such a sudden intrusion on top of it— 

“I’m glad she wasn’t hurt,” Awsten says. “We’ll find who did this.”

James is silent for a moment. Then, “If you don’t find the intruder, then rest assured, Miss Hannah will recover. Her husband was—” 

“We know,” Miki says. 

James is about to say something else, but then the doorbell is ringing. “I should get that,” he says. “Excuse me, would you make your way to the parlor to wait a few minutes?”

“Sure,” Awsten says. He watches James leave, and then he and Miki start moving again. They know their way around most of the house, since they’ve been here a few times. It’s a large place, and he can’t imagine how Miss Hannah will deal with living in it all by herself now.

Awsten and Miki enter the parlor and Miki goes to pour himself a drink. Awsten takes out his notebook, in which he’s written all the details he’s collected so far. There’s not much.

Miss Hannah, her butler James, and her gardener Deller all heard a gunshot followed by a crash in the sitting room about an hour after dinner. Hannah and her staff rushed to the sitting room to find the window smashed by a fire poker and the lord of the house dead. Deller covered the broken window to keep the rain from getting in while James took Miss Hannah to another room to keep her safe. Miss Hannah called their detective agency not long after, once she had collected her wits.

Awsten reads over the rest of the facts. No company was expected that night, according to James. He briefly considers whether or not to write down the fact that he found the possible murder weapon. Maybe best not to, for the unfortunate woman’s sake. 

Miki stretches and sets down his glass with a clink. “We should check on Bonnie and Miss Hannah,” he says. “It’s been a few minutes.”

Awsten glances at his watch and then nods. Together, the two of them exit the parlor. As soon as the door is shut behind them, Awsten hears voices coming from somewhere in the manor. He and Miki exchange confused glances, and they head in the direction of the noise.

“— and our associates, officers Panichi and Wigington,” a somewhat familiar voice is saying. “I know you’ve been through a lot tonight, but I’d like to ask if you could explain what happened. If it’s too much, you can sit down, of course. ”

“I don’t understand,” Miss Hannah says. “I’ve already explained everything to the other detectives. Can’t you consult with them?”

“Other… detectives?”

Awsten walks around the corner and nearly runs straight into Bonnie, coming out of a bathroom. Her eyes go wide seeing them and she opens her mouth to speak, but—

“OH NO NOT YOU THREE!”

Awsten, Miki, and Bonnie all whirl around to see four policemen— two detectives and two officers— standing in the entrance hall with James and Miss Hannah (who is now clad in a flowing black dressing gown). And those are not just any police either.

Detectives Potter and Wood, the two detectives that always seem to get called to the same cases that Awsten and his associates get called to. It’s an annoying coincidence.

Detective Potter is scowling at them. “What are you imbeciles doing here?” he demands.

“We were invited,” Bonnie says, marching straight over to them and putting a protective arm around Hannah. “Miss Hannah called us after someone shot her husband, and we’ve been working to solve the crime.”

Detective Wood looks just as annoyed as Detective Potter. “Why didn’t you just call the police straight away, instead of a bunch of wannabe— We got the call from your _neighbor_ down the road.”

Miss Hannah sighs and leans against Bonnie as her eyes flutter shut. “Oh, I’m so sorry, detective, I’ve had such a shock tonight— I know these detectives and they were the only ones I could think to call when I—” she breaks off with a small sob and buries her face in Bonnie’s chest as the detective hugs her comfortingly.

Detective Potter looks uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, ma’am. You can… um, you can go sit down somewhere. Geoff, would you go with?”

Miss Hannah, Bonnie, and Officer Wigington all walk away. James also makes to leave, but Detective Wood stops him.

“I’ve got some questions for you,” he says. “And you two idiots.”

“Hey!” Awsten protests. “We’ve been working hard, you know.”

“Really?” Detective Wood says. “Judging by every other case you’ve ‘worked,’ I’m pretty sure you’ve ruined every bit of evidence there is.” He turns to James. “Now—”

“I’m sorry,” James says, taking a step backwards. “But Miss Hannah will be requiring my assistance soon. I can make a statement at the station in the morning, but I have work to do right now. Excuse me, but you will have to see yourselves out.” And he walks off without another word.

“Suspicious,” Detective Wood mutters. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s covering something up. Something important.”

“Even if he was,” Miki says. “Is it really— look, Miss Hannah’s husband was… well, he wasn’t a good person. It makes sense he’d have a lot of enemies.”

“Even in his own house?” Detective Panichi says.

“Whoa!” Awsten says. “There’s no proof that James _or_ Miss Hannah had anything to do with this— none that we’ve found anyway.”

“None that you haven’t ruined or accidentally thrown away?” Detective Wood says. Awsten manages not to wince, thinking back to the gun.

“Look, Miss Hannah’s upset,” Awsten says. “She’ll be able to talk and answer your questions tomorrow. Right now, it’s late, it’s raining, and I for one would like to be home. How about we all meet up at the station first thing in the morning. I promise I’ll share everything we’ve got with you.”

“Everything that’s relevant,” Miki adds. Yeah, it probably won’t paint Hannah in the best light if they tell the police that they just told her about her husband’s infidelity on the morning of the murder. It’d make her look like she had motive.

The poor, sweet woman’s been through enough.

Awsten and Miki leave shortly after the police leave. It’s not until they’re nearly back to their office that they realize they’ve left Bonnie behind.

“It’ll be okay,” Miki says. “She, uh… she’ll keep an eye on Miss Hannah. Make sure she feels safe.”

Awsten feels a bit bad about forgetting her, but he’s tired, so he agrees.


End file.
